England

The Outsider: Beckham only desires more Hispanic friends

By Paul Angelo Sampson ⋅ January 25, 2007 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Take a sideways look at the recent events in the footballing world with our man Paul Angelo Sampson. David Beckham may have moved to the States simply to live amongst more Hispanics than there are in Madrid, while Peter Kenyon envisages many years of “healthy tension” to come.

It’s hard to feel for someone who is being paid £25million a year but when one takes a moment to reflect on the meteoric demise of David Beckham’s career there is little other option.

Not nine months ago Beckham lead England to the World Cup the Captain of our most promising generation of footballers in decades and yet the trophy still proved out of reach in his last chance to win a major international tournament. Within weeks, he conceded the captaincy of his country and was then dropped from the national set up altogether. A new manager at his club followed suit and cut him from the first team also before eventually announcing that he won’t play for Real again. Beckham is suddenly a peripheral figure in the world game he once defined.

He has served England and, more importantly, football, admirably throughout his career and such damaging, successive blows will therefore have pained his heart. Fortunately, £128 million pounds buys any number of shiny new hearts that have not been scarred by Alex Ferguson, Steve McClaren or Fabio Capello and still leaves him enough change to fund one last shot at a music career for his good lady. Moreover, by moving to Los Angeles he fulfils his most recent ambition of living in a city with even more Hispanics than Madrid.

Beckham may also want to keep some cash spare to appease new teammates already showing signs of resentment at the size of their English colleagues’ pay packet. “Of course there’s resentment, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t.” said Galaxy midfielder Peter Vagenas. Vagenas captained the side to a cup double in 2005, and earns approximately £60,000 a year with LA. Next time he switches the ball out to the right he’ll be doing so to a teammate that earns more than that in a single day by kicking the same ball on the same pitch on the same side in the same game. A bitter pill to swallow, perhaps Victoria could offer to show them how it’s done. Nonetheless, David will have to call on all the charm he laid on his wife after the Rebecca Loos affair in order to seduce his new teammates into believing they’re not being shortchanged somehow.

Peter Kenyon’s most recent contribution to the press was to describe the atmosphere between manager and chairman as a “healthy tension”, a phrase I believe last used in the OJ Simpson trial

And whilst on the subject of Loos, just as to what a footballer earning tens of thousands of pounds a week is doing stealing a toilet seat from a shop boggles the mind. Perhaps being de-throned at Chelsea has encouraged Glen Johnson to acquire a back up at Portsmouth but the least he could have done was to part with a few not so hard earned Roubles for it. Harry Redknapp will be turning the air blue down on the south coast but sadly for him the police file doesn’t end there. The only other footballer arrested this week is another Portsmouth player, Lomana Tresor Lua Lua. Harry could be forgiven for feeling slightly murderous himself but he’d be better off showing them how to become a loveable rogue as opposed to the village idiots they are showing themselves to be.

Over at Stamford Bridge, Jose Mourinho’s days in charge are rumoured to be numbered. The almost invariably fatal public backing from his board will not have allayed his fears then. Moreover, if the Portuguese does leave Stamford Bridge citing a meddling board or chairman as the reason, then the mooted switch to Real Madrid is a non-starter for those very same reasons. Peter Kenyon’s most recent contribution to the press was to describe the atmosphere between manager and chairman as a “healthy tension”, a phrase I believe last used in the OJ Simpson trial.

On the other side of London, Alan Curbishley appears the busiest manager in the league with offers and negotiations being meted out with more selectiveness than might first appear given that he brought in a “player of experience” in signing Nigel Quashie. Apparently, the midfielder must have experience in this situation over and above being relegated with QPR, West Brom, Southampton and Nottingham Forest. Someone ought to remind Lucas Neill that the shopping list of “top class players” shown to him by Curbishley that convinced him to shun a switch to Liverpool once held Quashie’s name on it too and has yielded little else yet.

However, Curbishley looks to be working tirelessly to ensure the Hammers acquire the requisite armour for the job at hand and, with £30million on offer for even the bottom clubs next season, it appears there will be plenty of reward. The new TV rights deal will mean £50million to the champions (up from £20million this year) and £27m to the team relegated in last place. New chairman Eggert Magnusson will have his sights firmly set on his share of the spoils and his manager will enjoy the novelty of having some money to spend as a result.

In the upper echelons of the table, both Liverpool and Arsenal recently played their part in breathing new life in to the title race by reeling in Chelsea and Manchester United respectively. United, however, have increased their already superior goal difference by a further one over the weekend, which is worth another point in the title race as Chelsea are unlikely to better their rivals in this department. Suddenly a six-point gap becomes seven and Chelsea have it all to do.

With one week left of the transfer window we can look forward to some frantic activity as all the league’s managers try to find the missing pieces to their puzzle. Chris Coleman may feel as though he has already completed his jigsaw with the acquisition of Vincenzo Montella, a player that scored 34 Serie-A goals in the ‘04/’05 season and has endeared himself to the fans at the Cottage already. He may well now set the benchmark for the impact the window acquisitions have to make.

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